Following my post on Forest and Land Scotland’s Larch Removal Plan in Strathyre, which would decimate the forest and its wildlife (see here),  the local community has set up a campaign to stop the destruction.  In the words of a local person:

“most of the villagers and local businesses had no idea this mass tree felling was happening. We had our BLS (Balquhidder, Lochearnhead and Strathyre Community Development Trust) annual meeting in the village hall , last week and that is where it was raised.  FLS has not been transparent with us and we had no idea that there was a meeting on the 25th March to discuss the proposed felling. Of course no one attended and there were no objections from the village”.

That speaks volumes.  The UK Forestry Standard 5th Edition (see here), which purports to set out the four home nation governments’ “approach to sustainable forestry”, includes a requirement for public involvement (Page 91) which states:

“Once submitted to the forestry authority (i.e Scottish Forestry) for approval, most felling, planting or management plan proposals are made available for public comment. Arrangements for this vary across the UK. Where an EIA is required, the consultation process is more extensive.

People with a recognisable interest in a forestry proposal or its outcomes should be given
the opportunity to be involved in its development.”

It appears that local people weren’t aware of Scottish Forestry’s formal 28 day consultation on the Strathyre Larch Removal Plan (now closed) either and they were given no meaningful “opportunity to be involved in its development”..

More and more people are now beginning to realise that consultation on forest plans across Scotland is a farce. Even the forest industry admitted consultation could be improved at the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Committee  evidence session on forestry in January (which can be viewed on Scottish Parliament TV from c1.hr 35 mins see here).  However, the  forestry industry also tried to blame the public for getting angry about forestry proposals when most of that is due to people having their views and interests ignored.

The people in Strathyre would have every right to be angry about being ignored  but their campaign is a model of reason asking FLS and Scottish Forestry to conduct a proper consultation:

Please consider suporting then and signing their petition here.  Please also consider  emailing or even better speaking to your MSP about the urgent need for meaningful consultations on forest plans instead of the current tick box approach.

Scottish Forestry’s  website is hopeless for consultation purposes.  Its very hard to find out what consultations are taking place and when you do little or no information is available and usually you have to ask for it.  In terms of transparency, the planning system is bad enough but Scottish Forestry is way behind local authority planning portals – as Ian Wall from the Royal Society if Edinburgh pointed out at the Rural Affairs Committee on January.  Major reforms are required to give local communities, like that in Strathyre, and the wider public a real say.